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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2020)
Appeal Tribune ❚ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2020 ❚ 1B Outdoors SNOW PLACE TO GO The Deschutes River in central Oregon. BOBBIE SNEAD/SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL Deschutes River Trail boats beautiful views for those who brave deep drifts Bobbie Snead Special to the Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK The Deschutes River Trail drains over 10,000 square miles of high desert in central Oregon. It incises its way through lava fields and travels over the arid sagebrush steppe before it joins the Columbia River. In summer the Des- chutes is a cool ribbon that slips through the dusty sunbaked forest. Winter is a different story. The high desert is a cold desert. Freezing weather creates a spar- kling riverside snowscape. An easy place to experience the river in winter is on the Deschutes River Trail, just north of Bend. Last night’s snowfall lies a foot deep as I head south on the marked trail. I sink through the luscious soft surface with each boot step. Downy flakes con- tinue to fall. Inky dark swirls in the river flow between frozen banks. I am com- pletely alone. I pause for a moment and close my eyes. The only sound is water bouncing over rocks. Yesterday’s partially buried foot- prints make my going easier. As I hike upstream, I have long views of the river surging toward me. Newly plumped pil- lows of snow top the midstream boul- ders. As I watch the river’s surface flow, I think about the ghost river below it. An unseen current moves slowly beneath the free-flowing river. It seeps through the permeable space under and along- side the stream bed. Water from the sur- face exchanges back and forth with the subsurface zone. Scientists call this un- derground stream the hyporheic flow. It is the subterranean presence that all rivers have. As water moves from the surface to the subsurface it carries dis- If you go Directions: From Bend, drive northwest on Highway 20 for 5 miles. Turn south on O B Riley Road and follow signs to Tumalo State Park day use area. Length: 4 miles round trip Duration: 3 hours Elevation gain: 200 feet Age range: deep snow – suitable for children 12 years old and up. Little or no snow – suitable for all ages solved oxygen with it, benefiting the mi- crobes and macroinvertebrates living below. When water from the hyporheic zone reenters the surface stream, it brings up nutrients that feed aquatic creatures in the river. A healthy riverine ecosystem depends on both the visible and invisible flow of water. I continue up the trail. A huge or- ange-tinged tree trunk draws my eye. It’s a stately old ponderosa pine. Its sturdy branches reach out to the falling snow like welcoming arms. Thick bark peels off the trunk in puzzle-shaped pieces. I put my nose to the bark to sniff the pine resin. It smells like chilled va- nilla. The ponderosa’s long elegant nee- dles grow in bundles of three. Each bun- dle cradles a fluff of snowflakes. A young ponderosa pine has dark brown bark. As the tree matures the col- or slowly changes. After about 150 years of living, a ponderosa develops the characteristic pumpkin hue of old age. The big pine isn’t the only arboreal el- der along this stretch of the Deschutes. An old western juniper stands in the middle of a nearby clearing. It, too, is about 150 years old. It started growing just as European American settlers be- gan homesteading in the Deschutes country. Back then, frequent low inten- sity fires burned small trees and under- See DESCHUTES, Page 2B How telling the truth has pinched my wallet change between my arrival in Salem in 1987 and the pioneer residency require- ment of 50 years. Apparently someone had punched in the wrong date for my arrival sometime during my three-plus decades of li- cense-buying My information has been updated. Darn it. Fishing Henry Miller Guest columnist In keeping with the theme of fresh starts, here is a roundup of newsy nug- gets. First, an insight. After listening recently to a lengthy and frankly soporific description of an uneventful fishing trip told in excruciat- ing detail by an angler who had the rhe- torical flourish of someone reading the installation instructions for a toilet flush valve, I had an epiphany. Not wanting to allow an opportunity for them to go off at length on a different tangent, I didn’t say a word, just nodded occasionally. Although nodding off may be a more accurate description. Couldn’t though; too busy biting my tongue. He seemed genuinely impressed by my apparent attentiveness and per- ceived respect for his ability to tell a sto- ry. Here’s the epiphany: The more you let people talk to you without interrupt- ing, the more intelligent and insightful they will think that you are. It’s a variation on a couple of quotes by Calvin “Silent Cal,” Coolidge, the Stalking the stocking Walter Wirth lake in Salem at Cascades Gateway Park. PHOTO COURTESY OF HENRY MILLER 30th president of the United States (1923-1929): “No man ever listened him- self out of a job” and “I have never been hurt by anything I didn’t say.” Moving on. Silence, in the following case, wasn’t so golden. I cannot tell a lie But was sorely tempted. When I went to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife headquarters on Monday to purchase my 2020 licenses and tags, the woman at the computer terminal checked my information and asked if I wanted “to purchase my pio- neer fishing and hunting license.” At $6 for the combo, including the Columbia River Basin Endorsement, it’s the deal of a lifetime. Only problem is that lifetime, in this instance, was lacking. While I’m actuarially in the sweet spot (65 and older), there’s a decade and The schedule shows a two-week lull in hatchery deliveries of trout after plants at Walter Wirth Lake, Walling and Junction City ponds the week of Jan. 13. Wirth (1,150 rainbows averaging 12 inches) and Walling (450 foot-longs) are both inside the Salem city limits. Wirth is in Cascades Gateway Park with the entrance road off Turner Road just south of the Walmart. Walling is at 16th and McGilchrist streets (parking off 16th). Junction City Pond (1,150 of the larger trout) is on the west side of Highway 99 about three miles south of its namesake town. Stocking picks up in earnest the week of January 27 and again after Des- ert Springs Trout Farm near Summer Lake starts its 2020 deliveries in Febru- See MILLER, Page 3B